


Prelude

by xantissa



Series: Carnival of Rust [1]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Ending, F/M, Fix-It, Khan is not a nice person, M/M, Post Movie, Series, but he is hot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-08
Updated: 2013-06-08
Packaged: 2017-12-14 07:41:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/834382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xantissa/pseuds/xantissa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Most people knew technically that he was smart, but they didn’t really realize it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prelude

**Author's Note:**

> Alternate ending to Star Trek Into Darkness, that explores the after effects of using Khan’s blood to heal Kirk and how the Captain tried to remake his possible failure into a success, like he has a tendency to do.  
> This will be a series of not always chronological fics. Each dealing with Khan and the consequences of Kirk's deal with him.

James Tiberius Kirk closed the door to the restroom behind him and sighed, leaning his head back on the wood and trying to think clearly of what he was actually doing. He opened the faucet and splashed some water on his face struggling vainly to control himself.

It didn’t work.

The drugs he had to inject seven times a day were barely working anymore, the red haze lingering just at the edge of his sight.

He no longer had the luxury to hesitate.

After the events of Admiral Marcus’ betrayal and the capture of John Harris, the whole crew had been on stand down, the Enterprise almost a wreck, and all the officers were kept separate for the interviews.

Most people knew technically that he was smart, but they didn’t actually realize how smart. He was often underestimated and he honestly preferred it that way. It always gave him an edge on unsuspecting opponents. Not surprisingly, it didn’t take him long to realize that the brass was going to hide the full extent of Admiral Marcus’ crimes from the public eye.

John Harrison was captured, judged, found guilty and executed three weeks after being captured.

Khan Noonien Singh however was currently being held in a top secret military base and Jim Kirk had spent the last four weeks cajoling, pleasing, threatening and finally outright blackmailing his superiors to let him take charge of the man. He fought for Khan like a man possessed, burning bridges left and right, barely managing to keep his crew clear of suspicion. He fought for this man’s life as if his own depended on it. He grimaced at his reflection in the mirror. His life actually depended on it. Or rather, his sanity and his life.

He hadn’t spoken to, nor seen any of his people since they transferred Khan into the Federation care. He made it his mission not to meet with McCoy, because the man would notice that the signs of radiation poisoning were slowly coming back. But even that wouldn’t be enough to make Jim this desperate. No, it was the other thing, the thing that scared him like nothing else in his life had.

He squared his shoulders and took a deep breath. He was already too deep into the rabbit’s hole to ever turn back. Even with all the shit he was going to get for doing this from his crew and from the brass, there was a slim ray of hope that it might turn out okay yet. Instead of a viciously intelligent and almost unstoppable enemy, they might, in time get an ally. But first he needed to pass this one test. The brass has taken Khan’s crew and scattered them into different, secret places in ones or twos, so that no one would be able to get them all together again. Kirk knew they expected him to threaten Khan with the lives of his crew, his family, to keep him under control, just like Marcus did. They didn’t fight the man, they never faced him, never saw the burning rage, the loss, the utter and uncompromising loyalty he held for his people. Kirk knew, down into his bones, that Khan would obey any order, do anything... until he saw the moment to get his revenge. He was brilliant, cold and capable of holding on to vengeance for eternity. He was not an asset, not a tool, not a weapon. He was a Captain. Kirk saw it, understood what drove him better than most, he was also smart enough to know that repeating the same thing as Admiral Marcus would lead to the exact same result – unstoppable bloodshed.

Everyone knew it was Khan’s blood that saved him. No one knew what the real consequences were though. Somehow Jim knew it was planned by the man. Not specifically for Jim but as a defense mechanism probably, so that no one deigned to use him as a human factory or a miracle working drug. While it did bring him back to life it did something else, too.

It changed him. Down to the very deepest reaches of his own self, it changed him. It was still changing him, mutating him, turning him into a monster. As much as he understood the reasons and pitied Khan, he hated and feared the man that could be so cold, so scheming to have backup plans of backup plans of fucking barely existing possibilities. He thought back to one of the few exchanges he had with the man.

_“I am better.”_

_“At what?”_

_“Everything”_

At that time Jim heard only the arrogance and pride in that statement, the superiority complex. Now, that the whole world thought him dead and he was still alive and well and to be released from imprisonment soon, Kirk had to think again. How could a single man with so little time since being awakened from his cryosleep plan all this? The patience and utter control it required just boggled the mind.

With his throat dry and vision still swimming with red spots, Jim Kirk left the restroom and nodded at the waiting guards to lead him into the deepest levels of the secret holding facility. He really didn’t have a choice here. He had to play this game with Khan Noonien Singh.

He won once, and he was determined he was going to win again. While people had tried torture and blackmail to get control of the superhuman, James Tiberius Kirk knew those methods would never work. He would do the exact opposite. The most dangerous, the most unusual and inescapable thing that Admiral Pike had done to him all those years ago.

_“I believe in you.”_

He stopped in front of the last, heavily reinforced door, both guards stepping back and leaving him to enter the holding cell alone.

Showtime

 

The End.  
To be continued in Dance with the Devil


End file.
